A collection of images by featured photographer Jean Schnell celebrating the beauty of Quaker meetinghouses.
By Heather Marcus
Mar 24 2022
Beacon Hill Friends Meetingroom, Boston, MA. This Meetingroom is located in Beacon Hill Friends House. This house began as two houses: 2 five-story brick family homes designed by Charles Bullfinch in 1805-1806. The 2 houses are now combined into one known as Beacon Hill Friends House. The music room/ballroom on the ground floor has a teak floor and a grand fireplace, made with teak and black marble This room is now the Meetingroom of the Beacon Hill Friends Meeting
Photo Credit : Jean SchnellEach summer when I was very young, my family drove from Philadelphia, where we lived, to the Damariscotta region in Maine. I loved the lake and going to the rocky coast to see the Pemaquid lighthouse and get some fresh lobsters. When I was older, I traveled with my parents to Acadia for summer vacations. I still love to visit there. I moved to Massachusetts when I was a young adult and now consider it my home. My children were raised in Massachusetts, so I now have deep roots with family and friends in the area. Now that I am retired, I like to explore all the hidden — and not so hidden — treasures in New England.
For photographing the Quaker meetinghouses in Massachusetts, I used a Nikon D7000, D7100, a tripod, and natural light. As I continue with this project in the other New England states, I am using a Nikon D750. It’s fairly simple and straightforward equipment.
I use a meditative approach to the photography. I normally spend a full day in each meetinghouse, meditating before picking up my camera.
Stylistically, I was influenced by two artists. Andrew Wyeth’s interiors and somber color palette helped me to understand that a quiet interior scene is a worthy subject for a photograph. Heather Neill’s “Reclamation” series gave me ideas on how to photograph the windows and window light, and helped me to understand the decisions I had to make about whether the exterior should be part of the interior scene.
Initial inspiration for this Quaker meetinghouse collection came from the desire to try my hand at making a fine-art collection of photographs around a single subject. It was important that I felt an affinity for my subject. Since I am a lifelong Quaker, I’m very familiar with the beauty of the Quaker meetinghouses, so this subject seemed a natural fit. It became a labor of love to show the essence of my Quakerism in photographs.
Photographing 23 Massachusetts Quaker meetinghouses over three years was a bonanza of “photo-learning firsts.” The drive to keep going on such a lengthy project was, and still is, provided by the support of family, friends, mentor Alison Shaw, and my entire mentorship group. They encouraged me and provided insightful feedback as I photographed and edited this collection, “Framing the Light: Quaker Meetinghouses as Space and Spirit.”
To see more of Schnell’s work and learn more about the places she photographed, go to jeanschnell.com.
This post was first published in 2018 and has been updated.
Heather Marcus is the photo editor for Yankee Magazine. As photo editor, she works closely with the art director and a large group of contributing photographers to add color and style to the magazine's pages. Living in New England, she is inspired by the people, the landscape, and the wonderful visual opportunities the region affords.
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